Island in the Sea of Time
|sort = 01 }} The Event Ian Arnstein a Classics professor fron San Diego, arrives on Nantucket Island on March 17, 1998. He walks to the John Cofflin House for a seafood dinner. Doreen Rosenthal, astronomy intern and visitor, watches the computer feed from automated cameras and realizes something strange is happening to the numbers. Police Chief Jared Cofflin is concerned by another power cut. He stares at the multicoloured dome of light covering the island until screams distract him. He takes control and quiets the crowds. Captain Marian Alston is on US Coast Guard sail training ship Eagle as her crew of cadets reduces sail. Nantucket Island is northeast and relatively close. Lieutenant William Walker is taking a star sight, Lieutenant Victor Ortiz is instructing in navigation when sailing master Thomas Hiller points out that the compass is spinning. The ship is becalmed and charged with static electricity. Alston orders sails furled and engines started. Afterward Marian Alston cannot contact anyone except Nantucket Island. Doreen takes her information to Jared Cofflin and shows him her results. Cofflin decides on a flight to the mainland to test Doreen's theory that Nantucket Island is now in the year 1250 BCE and asks Andy Toffler, owner of the only seaplane, to transport him. He calls Eagle and tells Marian; Marian says that her observations are consistent. When Cofflin says he is flying to the mainland, Alston asks him to take William Walker. After take off, they see a curved mark in the water, of different shades of blue on either side and patches of dead fish. They fly the trace for a while, and Eagle is able to determine the curve of an ellipse more than twenty-three miles long and five miles high centred on the Island. Eagle was barely inside the perimeter during the Event. Alston guesses the fish were electrocuted. As the flight continues, the occupants see Right Whales, almost extinct since the eighteenth century. Andy Toffler flies to what should be Boston, Massachusetts, finding only trees and native huts. Toffler, Jared Cofflin, William Walker, and Doreen Rosenthal walk ashore. They come under spear attack and respond by shooting over the natives' heads. The natives continue the attack. A spear penetrates Toffler's leg, but Doreen is able to remove it. As the natives continue to advance, Walker reluctantly aims, hitting one in the leg and fatally wounding the other. They treat the injured man and put him into the floatplane to return to Nantucket Island. An officer on Eagle and four people on Nantucket commit suicide; a dozen more make an attempt. Jared Cofflin finds himself chairing a public meeting. He tells the assembly that the island has travelled back in time. Cofflin introduces Doreen and Marian, who verify this. He shows pictures of what should be Boston. Ian Arnstein adds implications to the Event. There is no America. There are no sources of oil or food and no factories. When existing food is exhausted the inhabitants of Nantucket will starve unless they arrange a food supply, now. Arnstein says Nantucket can trade for hides and game. Martha Stoddard says Europe is in the Bronze Age and they could acquire wheat there and that they have ships, including Eagle. Alston says she will help, but they need organization. Cofflin is elected as Chief Executive Officer for the emergency. Cofflin appoints Starbuck, Alston, Arnstein, Rosenthal, Lisketter, Angelica Brand, and the available selectmen to a new Town Council. After the meeting, Dr. Coleman reports that the native who had been shot is dying from an intense case of the common cold: the native had never been exposed to a cold virus before. Alston returns to Eagle and briefs her crew. Sandy Rapczewicz is concerned that they are changing the future and Alston tells the officers that they have already changed it simply by arriving. The Council discovers there is only three weeks of food. They ration electricity and fuel. Two trawlers can fish until their diesel runs out, and the council plans to convert leisure sailing yachts for line fishing. They decide to return to whaling as a source of meat and oil. Dr. Coleman and Martha Stoddard have ideas for gathering wild plants and seaweed. Angela Brand's winter cover is rye, which she can harvest instead of ploughing in. Ian suggests potatoes and ways to fertilise soil. Angela has seed potatoes and maize, and small herds of sheep and cows. Starbuck suggests a system of vouchers for work done. The local engineer, Ron Leaton, can produce tools. Pamela Lisketter has a network of hobbyists; weavers, potters, a glassblower, and a blacksmith. For food preservation they need salt. Arnstein suggests Inagua in the Bahamas, and they agree to send Yare, one of two trapped topmast schooners. They prepare a wish-list for Alston to bring back from her trip to Europe. Arnstein is to go because he knows "ancient languages", Latin and Greek. Doreen goes because she knows Lithuanian, a very old language that has changed little. Citizens begin learning new skills: They clear fields by slash-and-burn. Ned Shaw supervises line fishing for cod. William Walker catches a whale with a newly-made explosive harpoon. Ian Arnstein inspects trade weapons made by Leaton's Seahaven factory; knives, spears, crossbows, Roman-style swords. Jared Cofflin inspects as wind generators are adapted to charge automobile batteries. Eagle sails with a cargo of steel tools and weapons, plastic beads and trinkets. Alba On Alba (Britain then), Daurthunnicar, Chief of the Iraiina tribe, thanks trader Isketerol of Tartessos for his help in getting the tribe across the Narrow Sea. The Iraiina are already raiding the local Earth People, and Daurthunnicar looks forward to further riches. Swindapa of the Kurlelo line leads a defensive party against the invaders. Her warriors initially have the upper hand, but more Iraiina arrive, and they are trapped. Swindapa is gang-raped then taken captive as she is well dressed and might be worth a ransom. Marian Alston intends landing at Southampton Water, and Eagle is over a hundred miles away when the lookouts spot a small boat. It is filled with dead warrior types, one of whom is barely alive. He is rescued, with the goods from the boat, and he is nursed back to health. He is Ohotolarix, of the Iraiina tribe, and he speaks very early Indo-European. Marian pilots Eagle up Southampton Water and sees two sixty-foot ships and dozens of smaller boats drawn up on the Eastern shore. There is a large temporary camp from which charioteers and spearmen are hastily emerging. Alston drops anchor and sends Ohotolarix ashore with gifts. After Daurthunnicar is satisfied that Ohotolarix is not a ghost, he is questioned about the huge ship. He describes the people and their various 'magics', but when he describes the chief of the Eagle people as black, he horrifies his audience; this must be a demon Night One. However, Isketerol is listening. Describing Alston's appearance, he identifies her as a Medjay, an African warrior from the court of Pharaoh. Ohotolarix says that the Eagle People want grain, cattle, and pigs, for they showed him pictures. Daurthunnicar agrees to parlay with these new people, and exchange gifts. Alston, Walker, Arnstein and Rosenthal step ashore with an escort of cadets carrying shields, spears, and swords for show and sidearms for protection. Alston carries her own katana. Alston is greeted with ritual food. She and her party are then introduced until Arnstein realizes that a mediterranean-looking man comes from an enigmatic Bronze Age location in Spain. Arnstein tries Classical Greek, which Isketerol recognises as very bad Achaean, spoken by pirates and raiders. The two groups can now communicate, badly. Isketerol and his cousin Miskelefol identify Alston and several of her guard as women, but realise that Daurthunnicar has not noticed. They see Doreen writing with a pen on a kind of papyrus, but do not recognise the characters as Egyptian. They are awed that Alston is giving such rich gifts to savages. Isketerol interprets, and asks Ian if he wants Daurthunnicar to know that Alston is a woman? A Rahax would never feast with a woman, and indeed only great concession allows Doreen into the feasting hall. Marian has met this before; she is behaving like a man, and Daurthunnicar does not see past her behaviour and uniform. Daurthunnicar presents gifts to Marian. Isketerol is fascinated as Ian identifies items with the aid of an archaeology reference book. Food is shared and Daurthunnicar presents a last gift: a freshly washed female slave, Swindapa. Alston hides her anger. Swindapa is identified as a 'princess' of the Earth Folk, who also speaks Iraiina. Marian cuts Swindapa's bonds and lets her eat. Despite her fright, Swindapa also spots that Marian is a woman. The crew of Eagle are somewhat taken aback later, when Captain Alston boards with a naked blonde woman, but Marian orders a set of clothes and a boltcutter to remove Swindapa's rawhide slave collar. Swindapa is guided to the ship's surgery for a medical examination. Ashore next day, Isketerol advises Marian not to offer too much, as he also trades in Britain and does not want his market ruined. Trade is a matter of 'face' in the Bronze Age, and Daurthunnicar's status now obliges him to exchange generous 'gifts' with her. As they bargain, a puzzled young man watches Alston, and tries to attract the attention of Daurthunnicar. Not succeeding, the man grabs Alston, only to find himself thrown to the ground and knocked unconscious by her. Daurthunnicar asks what he can do to wipe out the shame of an attack on a guest? Alston, angry at what she has discovered about Swindapa's treatment by the Iraiina, tells him to treat the man as an oathbreaker. Isketerol adds that it is a shrewd move; the man realised she is a woman, now no one will dare to say so, for that would admit to a woman defeating one of their warriors... and for honour, Daurthunnicar must now give more gifts. The warrior is killed and buried with a sacrificed horse. His head is placed on a stake facing Eagle. Alston asks Isketerol to accompany them back to Nantucket for the summer, to teach what he knows, and to record and teach the many languages he speaks. Isketerol makes plans with his cousin and accepts, for he, too, wants to learn from the Amurrukan, the Eagle People. William Walker is in the Iraiina camp when he comes upon two warriors fighting over a slave girl. One is Ohotolarix, who is knocked out of the fight. The other warrior starts to walk away with his winnings, but Walker stops him and continues the fight, quickly defeating the man. Walker hands the slave girl back to Ohotolarix, who is insulted. Walker makes gestures of two men fighting for each other, but Ohotolarix misunderstands and accepts Walker as his liege lord, inviting Walker to his tent for a meal and the use of his returned slave girl. Walker starts thinking. Swindapa refuses to return home. The Stars have made a path for her leading to Eagle, and she is not going to disobey. Isketerol confirms this in Iraiina, and Swindapa breaks into English as well. Alston is astonished, and Arnstein observes that both locals have phenomenal memory. Eagle ''heads West, astonishing Isketerol with her speed. Doreen decides to share Ian's bunk. Nantucket Interludes While ''Eagle is on the voyage to Alba, a deranged Pastor Deubel tells his congregation that Satan caused the Event and is using Nantucket to prevent the birth of Christ. Martha Stoddard, the librarian, quietly lets Cofflin know the counter-arguments. Eventually, Deubel and his parishioners attempt to fire the town but Cofflin is watching for the attempt. Deubel locks himself in his church and commits suicide. His parishioners are arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to exile and hard labour on Inagua. A few days later, a man shoots his wife and commits suicide. Cofflin confiscates all guns. Trapping birds for meat, Cofflin realizes that he and the others on Nantucket Island are the first to see passenger pigeons in more than a century. ''Eagle'', at Sea Ian and Doreen teach English to the passengers, then letters and numbers. Doreen instructs Swindapa on the use of a Bo, or quarterstaff, while Walker shows Isketerol unarmed combat. After one exercise, Walker challenges Alston, hoping to make her lose face. Instead he ends up on the deck. Alston is not impressed, nor is Swindapa. Isketerol wonders about using this dissatisfied young man. Isketerol asks why the crew measure the sun at noon; during the explanation, Marian, Ian and Doreen discover that both locals are aware the world is round. Swinadapa is awake on deck one night, filling sleepless hours with memory games, when Marian comes on deck to exercise with her katana. When Marian draws her sword, light reflecting off the curved steel makes Swindapa think of a crescent moon; she sees it as a Sign sent by Moon Woman. She watches Marian 'dancing' with her sword, and is certain that the Stars and Moon Woman have set her on this path. (Ch. 8) As the ship nears Nantucket after six weeks of absence, Jared Cofflin has a surprise for Eagle and her passengers; a tow into harbour by a cruiser converted into a paddle steamer. Eagle docks to cheers and two days of celebration. (Ch. 9) Rebellion Planning for the future May-August 1 AE (After the Event) Marian arranges lodging for Isketerol, but Swindapa panics and wants to stay with her. Marian sends her to see Doctor Coleman. Isketerol meets William Walker, Alice Hong and Rosita Menendez. Dr Coleman reports on Swindapa, she has internal damage and a pelvic inflammation which has probably made her sterile. After the celebrations, Marian discusses her misgivings about the Iraiina with Jared, and advises that the Island forms an alliance with Swindapa's people, the Fiernan Bohuluga. Jared shows Marian her new home, a grand mansion that will also serve as Coast Guard Headquarters, and tells Marian some of the Island's initial plans. Isketerol sits outside the Athenaeum, his world image shattered. The Island has three thousand years of history, the proof being images of worn monuments he is familiar with. Tartessos is lost in time, only vaguely known. He thinks of the knowledge the gods have already given him through the Eagle People, and realises that he has an opportunity to change the future of his people... Swindapa does her own marvelling in the room she has been given by Marian. She thinks of the vengeance that Moon Woman must be planning, using the Eagle People against the Iraiina. Doreen and Ian set up house in the John Cofflin Hotel and plan a wine-importing business with Tartessos when things settle. They plan to marry after Jared and Martha's ceremony. (Ch. 9) Culture shock Marian shows the Islanders films of the Iraiina, including the sacrifice of the man who tried to grab her. Pamela Lisketter and friends meet up with William Walker, Isketerol and Alice Hong. Pamela is still shocked to the point of vomiting by the film. Walker is very supportive. Isketerol later expresses his admiration that the future is still capable of producing gullible idiots. At Martha and Jared's marriage, Marian catches the bouquet. Jared is told Tartessan boats are capable of crossing the Atlantic and raiding Nantucket - and will, as raiding is in the local mindset. She adds that the locals do not scare easily, and after Pastor Deubel, the Island only has half a dozen useful guns - as long as the ammunition lasts. Nantucket needs to train a militia in weapons that they can manufacture by hand. Marian visits John Martins, making a katana which is to be a present for Swindapa. Ron Leaton shows Marian the samurai style armour they are constructing for the new militia. Marian tries it on, it is flexible enough for her to do a forward roll. She reprimands Leaton for enamelling a gold eagle on the chest. Leaton promises thirty sets a week, plain green, building to one hundred a week. Martha and Jared are making breakfast when she is taken ill with a bout of morning sickness. William Walker hints to a tied-up Alice Hong that instead of playing bondage games with him, she could be doing it for real in Europe. Marian and Swindapa hunt a deer with a crossbow. Marian asks Swindapa about a small tattoo of an arrowhead she has on her chest. Swindapa explains this is the Spear Mark, used to denote proficiency in hunting and war by one half of her society. (Ch. 10) In July, a Town Meeting discusses getting involved with Alba. Swindapa says that her people want the Iraiina to leave them alone. Pamela Lisketter thinks the Island will exploit the Albans. Ian Arnstein says while their specialists are farming, they cannot produce the technology the Island needs for survival, a point echoed by Joseph Starbuck, who says that resources -such as metals- are running out. Pleas for a simple life from Lisketter are met with catcalls. Isketerol asks the Islanders to trade with Tartessos. Marian points out that while their technology is not great, they can be defeated by anyone who can send large numbers of warriors over the Atlantic; she wants to limit contact for a few years. Cofflin decides the Island needs trade, but with someone who is not a threat: Swindapa's people are no angels, but are the sort of ally they need. The new militia train with blades, spears, shields and crossbows. Alston teaches martial arts. Alston shows her officers plans for a two-masted schooner which the Island intends to build in numbers; she plans for her officers to trade, using them. Afterwards she mildly reprimands Cadet McAndrews for wanting to trade mainly with Africa to give the blacks an advantage. Alston has researched the idea; the civilisations McAndrews wants to trade with do not exist; black Africans as such are only found in central Africa, and the only real civilisation is the Egyptians, who regard everyone as a 'nigger' if they are not Egyptian... At Seahaven Engineering, Leaton demonstrates a hot-air fish drier, a new wood stove and a cooking oven with a hot water tank. Cofflin asks about progress on the reaping machines... The harvest will be gathered by hand. (Ch.11) "It's too quiet..." August - October, 1 AE Walker shows Isketerol around Yare, being converted to a cargo ship. Walker asks Isketerol if he would like this ship for his own. Alston is reading poetry, when Swindapa asks whether she can be her lover. She apologises for asking outright, she has been dropping hints but does not know how to read Marian's body language. The two make love. Later they quietly register as partners. Walker recruits Bill Cuddy, a trainee engineer. He already has Rodriguez and McAndrews. It is September and Cofflin comments that it is too quiet; Lisketter has shut up and he thinks she is organising trouble. Martha says Pamela has been researching Central American civilisations. That night Jared and Martha, Ian and Doreen, and Marian and Swindapa are at the Athenaeum when someone knocks at the door. Martha then Jared go down to answer. Marian is suspicious and collects her sword. A pistol fires, and Marian finds that Jared has been shot in the knee by David Lisketter. She learns that Pamela intends saving the Central American Olmecs from Nantucket by taking reference books and weapons to them. Marian asks David to put his gun down: when he does not, she chops his gun hand off with the sword. She fails to realise that Pamela also has a gun. Isketerol kills two Police guards in the Armoury, and steals weapons and ammunition. He divides the weapons so that Lisketter on Bentley gets the light calibers. The heavy weapons are sent to Yare. Walker kidnaps John Martins and his girlfriend Barbara. Others abduct Alice Hong and Rosita Menendez. Walker then steals machine guns from Eagle. He is discovered by Sandy Rapczewicz, and breaks her jaw. Walker runs''Yare'' out to sea on engines, shouting farewell to Pamela Lisketter in Bentley; he no longer needs her. Several of her followers jump ship and swim ashore. (Ch.12) Pursuit Nantucket Marian wakes up in hospital and is brought up to date. Martha is kidnapped onto Bentley, destination the Coatzacoalcos River. Given that the doctor will not allow her to get out of bed for two days, and the relative speed of the vessels, she decides she will take Eagle in pursuit of Bentley, assuming the Lisketters will need rescuing themselves. She tells Jared that Walker having machine guns and rifles is not much of a problem as she has the firing mechanisms. Central America Martha Cofflin on Bentley tries to persuade Pamela Lisketter that she is wrong, but Pamela is determined to 'protect' the Olmecs from Nantucketters and Europeans. Marian is in Eagle, in hot pursuit. Bentley arrives at the Coatzacoalcos river and travels to the first sizeable settlement, where against Martha's advice, David goes ashore with an escort. He is promptly attacked and defends himself with his pistol, but needs to retreat to the ship. As he does so, the ship is attacked and captured by swarms of Olmecs in canoes. Most of the Americans are killed and taken ashore. The tribal god-king is with the canoes, and pregnant Martha and yellow-green eyed Pamela are singled out, stripped, and taken upstream. Two days later, Eagle arrives. Finding a floating corpse, Marian has a microlight float plane launched; The God Help Us, flown by Andy Toffler, quickly discovers the sunk Bentley. Forewarned, Marian sends motor boats of armoured troops to the village, and finds the cannibalised remains of the crew and passengers. They find a cage where Martha and Pamela were kept; Martha has left clues for them. David Lisketter stumbles out of the jungle and is arrested and shown the consequences of his action. Marian takes her troops upriver in search of Martha and Pamela. The Olmecs gather canoes to stop them but are petrol-bombed by GHU. Marian's troops land close to the main civilisation centre where the two women have been spotted from the air by Andy. Swindapa watches as troops burn the crops around the landing areas and prepare to fend off two thousand Olmec warriors. Marian deliberately disrupts the Olmec combat rituals, infuriating them into a wild charge over a layer of caltrops, into volley fire from crossbows. A few warriors reach the lines, but cannot penetrate armour or withstand short swords. The few that do are met by Marian and Swindapa's katanas. The Olmec warriors run, with GHU watching. Martha watches from her jail as the warriors return from defeat. Shortly she and Pamela are dragged from the cell to be forced into a re-enactment of the Olmec creation myth, a process that leaves Pamela, with her jaguar eyes, in a catatonic state. Marian decides that a rescue attempt is necessary. Taking four experienced hunters she climbs into the citadel. While Toffler distracts the Olmecs with fire-bombing, Marian and her party break into the jail and back out again with Martha and Pamela. Marian and others are wounded and Pamela dies from a spear wound shortly after her rescue. The Nantucketters return to Eagle and sail back to the Island. Martha exacts her own revenge on David Lisketter by telling him that he has given mumps to the Olmecs, and has just destroyed the civilisation he and his sister were trying to save. Lisketter escapes his guard and jumps overboard. (Ch.15) Nantucket, and Walker in Alba October, 1 AE to February, 2 AE Marian's injury, the lack of preparedness of the fighting force, and winter mean that Walker must be ignored until spring. The Nantucketters busy themselves with civil engineering, boat building, finance, writing a new Constitution and weapon construction. William Walker, on the other hand, concentrates on shocking and aweing the Iraiina and the other Sun People tribes, and using slave labour to build the new weapons, tools and armour he needs, including a pair of bronze cannon. Alice Hong concentrates on training health, weaving and sewing into her slave girls, with sadism as her hobby. (Ch.17) April, 1 AE to June, 2 AE Marian and her flotilla, Eagle, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman sail into the Bristol Channel. Tubman splits off to investigate the Iraiina centre at Southampton Water, while Eagle and Douglass land at what would be Avonmouth, where Swindapa identifies herself to relations. The Islanders are soon busy building a fort and trading with the local Fiernan Bohulugi both sides of the channel. Lt Cdr Hendriksson reports that Isketerol has built a shallow-draught brigantine, covered by shore-based trebuchets in a walled encampment. Marian and Swindapa find that the tribes must be won over piecemeal, but the main group who must be convinced are the tribal elders, the Grandmothers, who are based on Salisbury Plain at Stonehenge, or the Great Wisdom. Marian takes 300 militia with her to meet them as Walker rouses the Sun People, using information tortured from a prisoner by Alice Hong. The militia impress the Fiernan Bohulugi by destroying a Sun People raid-in-force along the way. Lt Cdr Ortiz, in Douglass, meantime stirs up a Sun People tribe not yet allied to Walker, and offers transport of their warriors to behind Walker's lines. (Ch.18) Marian Alston buries her dead and continues the march to the Great Wisdom, where Swindapa is reunited with her family. (Ch.19) Walker discourages the Sun People from attacking individually again, promising an attack after the harvest. Doreen demonstrates an astronomical telescope and mathematical equations to the Grandmothers of the Fiernan Bohulugi, winning them over. A sea attack on Westhaven fort by Isketerol, Miskelefol and Sun People is preempted by Sandy Rapczewicz, a steam-powered bolt gun, and whale-oil flamethrowers. (Ch.20) July-August, 2 AE The Cofflins are on an inspection, starting at Seahaven Engineering, where a local indian is negotiating furs and food for steel tools. Leaton shows off a pneumatic hammer for cold-forging, then demonstrates a design of breech-loading flint musket. Jared is suitably impressed, and the Cofflins move on to Brand Farm. Marion must prove herself to the Fiernan warrior caste before they will take her seriously, so finds herself stark naked, armed with a single spear, on a deer hunt. Having gained her Spear Mark, she sets about persuading the warriors to fight in a new way. Eagle is prepared for a voyage back over the Atlantic, carrying pigs, horses, wheat, and several new Fiernan crew. (Ch.21) July-September, 2 AE Eagle lands her cargo of animals at Nantucket, and loads up the cargo Marian has ordered: more militia, prefabricated wagons and McCormick reapers. Marian shows the reapers at work and persuades the locals that with these, the warriors can muster in thousands, leaving the harvest to the women and old folk. Swindapa advises the villagers that they should not trade for new machines, but learn to make them for themselves. William Walker is on a raid, when he notices something odd; there are no warriors fighting him off, and the harvest has been completed. He realises this means Marian's tribesmen must already be gathering: and he rushes to prepare his men too. Annoyingly, Andy Toffler is flying that day, sees the burning village, and fire-bombs Walker's group. Walker has his Garand, and shoots down God Help Us. Marian and Swindapa are in a group following Toffler on the ground; they rescue the injured pilot and investigate the village. Swindapa finds the body of a young woman, and close by, a hidden baby girl whom she claims for adoption. Marian returns to her assembled troops and gives them a rousing speech. (Ch. 22) September-October, 2 AE Marian and over five thousand troops wait behind a hill crest for Walker to make his first move. He has a little under five thousand men, but he has chariots and two cannon. Walker opens the battle sending his chariots onto Marian's right flank. Marian orders her archers to fire from behind the hill, taking their angle from those who can see. The chariots are wiped out by the arrowstorm, but Marian can barely control her archers when they charge forward. Walker sees this, and persuades Daurthunnicar to send a massed charge into the centre while Walker attacks the other flank. His troops are ordered to attack then pretend to run, while Walker attacks the counter charge with his cannon. Marian spots something wrong and races to reinforce the flank and stop her men charging in. She is just in time to watch Walker's cannon charge up and unlimber. The still injured Andy Toffler has also seen them, and flies in with firebombs. Walker shoots him down. The fatally injured Toffler flies God Help Us straight into Walker's gunpowder store. Walker realises the battle is lost, and radios Bill Cuddy at base. Bill has just smashed an attack by the rebel Sun People tribe, and is surprised to hear 'Withdraw', but starts preparations. Walker makes his way off the field with his loyal retainers, but runs into Marian and her party. Neither party is strong, but to hold Walker Marian challenges him to single combat. He cannot refuse. In the ensuing combat, Walker loses an eye and Marian has her windpipe crushed. By the time she can breathe again, Walker has been dragged away by his men. (Ch. 23) October-November, 2 AE Alice Hong and Bill Cuddy take charge of the injured William Walker, and leave, leaving behind the slaves they have taken and the dying wife of Cadet McAndrews. Two days later, Marian and Ian find Walker's base and the slave pens, and Swindapa has a mixed-race baby girl to go with the one she has already. The Sun People tribes are thoroughly subdued by now, and must agree terms with Jared Cofflin, who has crossed the Atlantic to Alba. All Albans are required to lay down their arms, with the Nantucket troops as peace-keepers. The Sun People are required to pay compensation and release all slaves. The Fiernan Bohulugi get first pick at the 'new' technology Nantucket is developing. Nantucket agrees to take on and educate displaced persons and orphans, and the Sun People warriors can gain status by enlisting with Nantucket troops in pursuit of the escaped Walker. To keep an eye on Alba, Jared promotes the Arnsteins to Ambassadors, and leaves them in charge. (Ch.24) Epilogue March, 3 AE Ian Arnstein ambassador to Alba, arrives on Nantucket Island. He walks to the John Cofflin House for a seafood dinner.